Inventory of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Environmental and Occupational Health Data
Sources and Surveillance Activities

Inventory of Data Sources

Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) (Statistics Canada)

Contacts
Stéphane Racine
A/Manager, Research Division
Office of Canada's Drug Strategy
Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Programme
Health Canada
123 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON
Tel: (613) 946-3598
E-mail: stephane_racine@hc-sc.gc.ca

March Hamel
Chief, Statistics Canada
Jean-Talon Building, 1-B3, Tunney's Pasture
Ottawa, ON
Tel: (613) 951-2495
E-mail: marc.hamel@statcan.ca

Organization Maintaining the Database
 Statistics Canada (www.statcan.ca)

Purpose of Database
To track and monitor legal and illicit drug use among the general Canadian population aged 12 years and older.

Content
National and provincial data on legal and illegal drug use among the general population 12 years of age and older, obtained from a telephone survey. Data types: epidemiological, demographic, and other. Also includes occupational health data on mental fatigue. Levels of data: person-level data with identifiers; person-level data without identifiers; and group-level or aggregate data. Geolocators: postal codes; health region level.

Year Database Established
September 2000

Coverage Period
2000/01 to 2001/02

Data Updates
The surveys from which the data are obtained are on a 2-year cycle: year one = health region survey (sample size="130,000);" and year 2 = focused content survey (sample size="30,000).

Data Provider
Statistics Canada

Data Availability
The main users are Statistics Canada, Health Canada; no other parties have direct access to the data. There are security protocols restricting access to the database, and protocols restricting the use or disclosure of the data. (Contact responsible for privacy, use and disclosure of data: Marc Hamel, Chief, Statistics Canada; (613) 951-2495; marc.hamel@statcan.ca).

Reports
Reports available in printed and electronic format; these reports are widely disseminated.

Additional Comments
Funding for the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) was provided under the health Information Roadmap initiative, a plan to modernize and standardize health information across the country. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) received funds for the Roadmap from Health Canada, and Statistics Canada has joined as a partner in supporting a series of projects.

Plans are well underway for the development of output products and services to be released. It is expected that all CCHS products from a particular cycle will be released over the 12-months following completion of the cycle's last interview. A CCHS microdata file will be produced and shared with the provinces, territories and Health Canada under a data sharing agreement. In addition, a public use microdata file (PUMF) will be produced and released on compact disc.

Access to CCHS microdata can also be obtained by using Statistics Canada's custom tabulation and remote access services. Results of each survey cycle will be disseminated in the form of an overview report, quarterly CCHS articles on topics or sub-populations of interest, articles in Health reports and a series of 136 health region profiles available on the Statistics Canada web site. Finally, workshops are planned to assist users in maximizing their use of the CCHS.